Four poems by Mikel K

She loves her mother

I never knew mine,
though lived inside her.
And then lived with her
for eighteen years.




Memory Loss

If starting to smoke pot
when you are young
leads to memory loss
of words, 
like some study just said,
what happens 
if you start smoking dope
when you are old?
Do you not have
the words to talk to
the devil or God?
My mood is changing.
I've got a smile on my face,
but I don't know if it 
is going to last.




Lessons

I didn't learn how to hug
until I got sober.
I didn't learn how to love
until I had children.
Seems weird that
you have to be taught
how to pray.
Seems like you should be
able to talk to God
any old way.





I have no childhood pictures

Got nothing in a will.
Left home when I was eighteen.
Drank like a fish
from the time
I was fourteen until I was thirty four.
I've got a bad liver
but it's not from the booze.
It's from all the medication
that I have been prescribed
by doctors.
If I had it to do all over
I would do much of it differently.
I would teach my mom and dad
how to hug and how to say
I love you.


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 About the author: Mikel K is a poet and memoirist living in Atlanta, Ga. K was voted best Atlanta Poet, the last three years in a row, by readers of Creative Loafing, Atlanta's weekly newspaper. He has a BS in English with a minor in Journalism from Georgia State University.
 
Poetry by Mikel K has appeared in: Subtle Tea, Dead Snakes, Poeticus,  drown in my own fears, poetic diversity, Zygote In My Coffee, The Blue Lake Review, Swimming With Elephants, Ceremony,Visceral Uterus, High Coupe, Fragrance Poetry Magazine, The Piker Press, Vox Poetica, Napalm and Novocaine, Ceremony, The Georgia Review, The Reeve Report, Lowlife Magazine, The Political Dogma, World Wide Hippies.com, Open Salon, and Beagle Bugle. He was a music columnist for a number of years, covering the Atlanta music scene and worked as a freelancer for The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
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